Stadsbor och bönder : materiell kultur och social status i Halland från medeltid till 1700-tal

Sammanfattning: During the 1700's lifestyle and material culture varied a lot between towns and rural areas. The aim for this thesis is to study how this difference between town and countryside emerges and how an identity as a burgher or farmer will manifest itself in the material culture. An important question is if it is possible to find a particular urban lifestyle and if that is the case, what it looks like. The geographical frame is the province of Halland and the study begins in the early Middle Ages, before the first towns appear in Halland. The end of the 18th century marks the end point of this work. However, the study focuses mainly on the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period. I have chosen to deal with the period from the early Middle Ages to the latter part of the 18th century as a whole from an economic and social viewpoint – as a feudal era. This does not preclude that very large changes have occurred in a wide range of spheres during the period. The period also carries the seeds of the modern era. Both archaeological and written sources have been used in this work, the latter mostly in the form of probate inventories. Sources are seen as relatively independent of each other and I have assumed they can give different views of the period. In the contrast between the different type of sources we have a tool to discover conditions and relationships that would otherwise be next to invisible. The archaeological sources are predominantly from a series of rescue excavations from several different localities. During the whole period discussed here there is a clear distinction between urban and rural material culture. It is most apparent when we look at the pottery and other finds connected with eating. However, there are also several differences between urban and rural buildings and structuring of homes. The period from around 1750 to the early 19th century appears to be a time when the differences between urban and rural material culture were most accentuated. Vernacular style is often seen as “backwards” or just as an emulation of bourgeois style. But I am inclined to see this powerful material culture as a clear expression of a resistance against the attempts to reform vernacular culture, as proposed by Peter Burke. Instead of yielding to change and adopting bourgeois culture, peasants develop their very own material culture. This development is most visible in the second half of the 18th century when it was facilitated by favourable economic conditions for farmers. In the late 18th and 19th centuries we see the beginning of mass production of inexpensive household items and the vernacular material culture changes dramatically. Bourgeois culture finds its way into the peasants’ homes.